La Machine
La Machine was a wedged robot that competed in the latter three Robot Wars US tournaments. Commonly hailed as the pioneer of the wedge, La Machine's design was inspired by the visual of a jetskier going over a ramp and getting flung into the air, only with the roles reversed - the ramp would charge at the target to create the same effect. For its time, La Machine was exceptionally fast. It easily scooped up other robots and rammed them against the wall, the impact usually flipping them over and ending their chances - few robots had a contingency for being turned over. La Machine was originally a middleweight, but was upgraded to a larger scoop design in 1996, this new build pushing it into the heavyweight category. In 1997, the team added a pneumatic punch at the top of the scoop to further aid in flipping robots La Machine won the 1995 middleweight tournament, and finished second in the 1996 and 1997 heavyweight divisions, falling to BioHazard both times. It did however remain undefeated in rumbles, winning both the middle and heavyweight rumbles in 1995, then winning the 1996 Heavyweight one. Gage Cauchois split from the team to build his own robot, Vlad the Impaler, while Trey Roski and Greg Munson went on to found and run BattleBots. Trey and Greg also built Ginsu. Consequentially, La Machine's only BattleBots appearance was an exhibition match against Jay Leno's Chinkilla, Team Coolrobots' Dreadnought and Ginsu in Season 3.0. La Machine also appeared at the Long Beach event in 1999, where it went armorless and was used as the "camerabot" seen in many of the fights. Robot History US Robot Wars 1995 La Machine entered the Middleweight Main Competition and won after defeating Boy Howdy, Dawn Patrol and defending Champion X1. It also won the Middleweight and Heavyweight Melees. US Robot Wars 1996 La Machine moved up to the Heavyweight Division. It received a bye in Round 1 as did its Round 2 opponent South Bay Mauler. La Machine won and then defeated Tazz and DooMore to reach the Final where it lost to BioHazard. La Machine also won the Heavyweight Melee once again. US Robot Wars 1997 La Machine defeated Ankle Biter, Kill-O-Amp, Tazbot again and finally DooMore's successor DoAll to reach the Final where it once again lost to BioHazard. Comedy Central BattleBots Season 3.0 La Machine's only exhibition match in Season 3.0 was against Chinkilla, Dreadnought and Ginsu. The time ran out and Chinkilla won on a close 23-22 judge's decision. Results Wins/Losses * Wins: 14 * Losses: 3 Category:Competitors Category:US Robots Category:US Robot Wars Competitors Category:US Robot Wars 1995 competitors Category:US Robot Wars 1996 competitors Category:US Robot Wars 1997 competitors Category:BattleBots Competitors Category:Battlebots Season 3.0 competitors Category:Exhibition Battle Competitors Category:Robots with more wins than losses Category:Robots with Retracting Spears Category:Robots from California Category:Robots in The Combat Robot Hall of Fame Category:Champions Category:Heavyweight Robots Category:Middleweight Robots Category:Middleweight Champions Category:Robots that changed weight class Category:Robots that have thrown another robot out of the arena